Social Creed
Read a reflection by Centre College student Erica Arave that encourages youth groups to examine and discuss the Social Creed.
Use this bulletin insert the Sunday before Labor Day or on a day of your choosing. 
The 216th General Assembly (2006) asked the Advisory Committee on Social Witness Policy (ACSWP) with the General Assembly Committee on Ecumenical Relations and the Department of Theology and Worship to continue work on updating for the 21st century the 1908 "Social Creed of the Churches" for presentation at the 218th General Assembly (2008) to celebrate the centennial of the "Social Creed of the Churches" of 1908.
Learn about the Social Creed
This 28-minute DVD is a professionally produced documentary introducing both the 1908 and 2008 Social Creeds and the church’s prophetic concerns in the century in between. Presbyterian and ecumenical leaders speak to why and how the church has used it voice and built structures for economic, racial, women’s and environmental justice. A final section looks at how the Social Creed can help address new challenges to Christian social witness in the 21st Century.
 Add this video to your Web site or blog.
Toward a New Social Awakening, The Social Creed 1908-2008
$7.00
02-052-08-001
 Social Creed Poster
Download a color poster with an overview of the Social Creed for the 21st Century.
Nourishing our spirits for the long haul
Book of Prayers related to new Social Creed
How do we pray in the face of heart-rending injustice and tragedy? Where do we get our soul strength renewed?
That God is our answer is no surprise, but there are many surprises in this new prayerbook: an Orthodox theologian composes a prayer for the bees, the former head of Witness for Peace provides a great prayer for persons in recovery, a retired CIA agent prays for integrity for spies, a tax lawyer prays for tax fairness, a well-known biblical scholar and a potter describe how to pray — especially for rain, an unknown immigrant from Mexico provides a lament for immigrants suffocated in a locked truck on the Texas border. The book features almost 100 prayers in total. Keep reading.
To Do Justice
Using the Creed in Deed
Another Resource for Putting the Social Creed into practice
Published in mid 2008 by Westminster/John Knox, To Do Justice: A Guide For Progressive Christians lifts up twelve major commitments in the new Social Creed and looks at them in some depth, devoting a short chapter to each in the 164-page total. The book includes guidance on strategy and examples of witness.
The twelve essays focus on big challenges: labor, health, housing, poverty, education, the war and militarism, the environment, the prison system, strengthening families and weakening the scourge of addiction. The chapters are written by an inclusive and highly respected group of ethicists, most with direct experience in organizing as well as studying on their issues of concern.
Co-editors Rebecca Todd Peters and Elizabeth Hinson-Hasty, both professors and ministers, include discussion questions with each chapter.
The book is available from Westminster/John Knox Press, (800) 523-1631.
Assembly approves new social creed, the first in a century
SAN JOSE, June 27, 2008 — By a 5-to-1 margin, the 218th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) on Friday approved “A Social Creed for the 21st Century,” exactly 100 years after the “Social Creed” of 1908 spoke to the harshness of industrial life at the turn of the last century.
Commissioners defeated a alternate motion that would have sent the 2008 creed to churches for study before the 2010 Assembly. [Keep reading]
Committee approves new social creed
SAN JOSE, June 24, 2008 — One hundred years after “A Social Creed of the Churches” joined Christians together to work to ease the human costs of industrialization, General Assembly’s Social Justice Issues Committee passed a new social creed Tuesday to “meet the challenges of sustainability and globalization.”
The vote was 54-19 with one abstention to approve recommending “A Social Creed for the 21st Century” to the 218th General Assembly. The new creed will be forwarded to member churches in the National Council of Churches of Christ (NCC) for their ratification.
During a lengthy debate, youth advisory delegate Michael Mishkovsky urged the creed’s adoption. “Why do you think kids aren’t joining the church?” he asked. “It’s because we don’t pass things like this. I want to be defined by love, and this is the way.” [Keep reading]
From Horizons magazine May/June 2008
Celebrating 100 Years of Social Awareness:
The Social Creed for the 21st Century
by Elizabeth Hinson-Hasty
Economic issues weigh heavily on the minds of citizens of the United States. Stories about the rise in foreclosure rates across the nation and reports concerning the growing disparity between the rich and the poor have begun to appear more frequently in newspaper headlines in recent months. These and other problems leave many people of faith feeling overwhelmed and wondering about their own responsibility to respond to such problems. We are in desperate need of change. Where might we look to understand the changes that are needed in the United States and in the larger global context? Are there visions for change that might help us faithfully consider public policies that will ensure our society promotes equality, justice, fairness and peace?
I believe there are visions for such change, and that the community of faith is ready to answer some of these difficult questions. Though churches are not always known for their progressive nature or openness to social change, churches have a long history of prophetic activity.
How have people of faith put their faith to work in the public, political sphere? And how are they doing it today? Find out by reading the full text of this article in the May/June issue of Horizons.
Learn how to order this issue.
From the Presbyterian News Service
April 18, 2008
PC(USA), NCC leaders to join in Earth Day ceremony
Presbyterians are first denomination to consider new Social Creed
Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) General Assembly Stated Clerk Clifton Kirkpatrick and the Rev. Michael Kinnamon, the new general secretary of the National Council of Churches of Christ (NCC) will share leadership of a worship service at the Presbyterian Center here April 22 to mark Earth Day and celebrate the ecological vision contained in the new ecumenical Social Creed for the 21st Century. [Read more]
From the Presbyterian News Service
November 16, 2006
NCC member churches mull new Social Creed
PC(USA) leads effort to commemorate 1908 creed with a new one
The National Council of Churches of Christ in the USA (NCC) has received for study the draft of a “social creed” that commemorates and builds upon the original Social Creed of the Churches of 1908 calling for economic and social justice.
“It is not enough to celebrate the centennial of the 1908 social creed,” said the Rev. Chris Iosso, a Presbyterian instrumental in the ecumenical development of the new document, entitled “A Social Creed for the 21st Century. [Read more] |
